Weekly Newsletter: May 13th-17th

For History this week, Foundation explored some of the early civilizations of the Americas! They learned about the mysterious and magnificent mega-drawings of the Nazca civilization of South America, and theorized as to how these gigantic drawings were made. They also took a look into the culture of some Central and North American civilizations through some stories! They then got to make their own mysterious and marvelous drawings in the style and spirit of the Nazca with some dyed sand.

This week for history, LaunchPad and Navigators made predictions of what the future might look like, specifically for the human race. They discussed if humans might be able to colonize Mars, what problems we would face, and what we would look like in the future!

Children’s book writing is in full swing for Writing Workshop, as Foundation and Navigator Eagles have all chosen the themes for their stories, along with their character and story arc, and are now getting in to writing!

Navigator also explored anthropomorphism in children’s literature, and why it is so commonly used. They then designed their own non-human character, with human like qualities, and drew a picture of it!

The LaunchPadders continued reading and analyzing The Elegance of the Hedgehog, for their Writing Workshop. This week they explored new characters we were introduced do, discussed why the author made certain literary choices, and decided if we agreed or disagreed with the philosophical theories of the main characters.

Eagles got to character creating in Art this week, as a part of their children’s book illustrations they’re creating in Writing Workshop! As their story unfolds, everyone is storyboarding and planning the images to go along with their text. They’ll be creating all original artwork for their books!

This week for the Apprenticeship Quest, LaunchPad gathered together early in the week to give edits to each other’s emails. Then, they sent out their first emails to potential apprenticeship opportunities!

For PE, Eagles continued playing kickball! Everyone broke into groups to go through drills practicing kicking, throwing, and catching, then got to play a game! LaunchPad also led conditioning this week, and introduced Acton to a new game, Gaga ball!

Studios really buckled down on portfolio building this week, exploring our online program, and going through past work to decide what projects, papers, and more they want to add to their portfolio. Everything from journal entries and poetry, to geography fun facts and book reviews.

Other highlights from the week include celebrating Penelope’s birthday in the studios, geo fun fact discussion, casino day on Friday, and ukulele jamming. And a big congrats to Kathleen for being awarded our Perseverance Hero for the week!We’re looking forward to ending our session strong next week, before heading into summer session.